These skills also served me well in San Francisco, when I found myself stepping over someone sleeping on the pavement.
I’ve convinced myself it’s a survival skill for the rare times I visit major cities when I was in Toronto back in 1999, I couldn’t handle seeing the homelessness problem, so within a couple of days I’d trained myself to walk faster, to look straight ahead, to not try and give pathetic scraps of change to the homeless woman standing outside a shopping centre, to the man lying on a sidewalk air vent. Shout out to Christopher Marlin-Warfield, author of Radical Charity, for a great book that looks at some of these issues.Over the years I’ve somehow made myself good at not looking. This is a challenging question, and perhaps not terribly appropriate to ask right now. How much of our “hand outs” are “hands up”? Does the charity we offer as a church keep people in a begging position, or does it raise them up so we can walk side-by-side. What are they and how are you sharing them? What do you have to give? It may not be what someone asks for - but you have God-given gifts to share. “The comparison of the man who lies helpless and dependent at the gate compared with the man who now is seen “walking and leaping and praising God” ( 3:8) makes the healing all the more impressive.” (Willimon) From kneeling, literally lower than Peter and John, to walking side-by-side with them. The main was lifted up from a position of servitude to a position of partnership. He raised up the man and entered the temple with them. Peter and John didn’t ignore the man, or see him as a crippled person, but instead say him as a man who was also a beloved child of God.Īgain, “raised up” is similar language to Jesus being “raised up by God” and Jesus raising up Jairus’s daughter and the deceased son of a widow (Luke 7:14, 8:15) How much of the healing was the power to walk and how much was the acceptance into the beloved community? What the man receives is not what he asked for - the man wanted money, but instead received healing and acceptance by Peter and John, not by the others (which leads to their arrest in Acts 4)
There are so many stories of people giving and sharing what they have to those who need it most Think back to Christmas, the little drummer boy, Amal and the Night Visitors, the Gift of the Magi, etc They shared what they have - cannot share what we don’t have (in this case money), but he can share what we do have (the good news of Jesus Christ)Įveryone has something to give - this seems obvious, but it isn’t This is the central confession of this passage and a living out of the beloved community described in Acts 2 The path toward significant prayer is a way that goes straight through, not around, human misery.” (William Willimon, Interpretation:, Acts, p. “Luke goes to great pains to show that the church’s gathering to break bread, teach, and pray joyfully was in no way a detour around the misery of the world.
The church is called outside of itself to serve the world Movement from the beloved utopian image of the church at the end of chapter 2 into the pain of the surrounding community here in Acts 3 This healing causes an uproar, draws a crowd, and leads to Peter’s second sermon, arrest, questioning, and release. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers…” For one, it is set in Jerusalem.Īcts 3:1-10 Peter and John heal a man at the TempleĪcts 17:1-9 Paul’s trouble in Thessalonicaġ Corinthians 13:1-13 The greatest gift is loveġ Corinthians 15:1-26, 51-57 Paul’s sermon on resurrectionĪcts 2:1-4 the first Pentecost and the arrival of the Holy Spiritġ Corinthians 12:1-13 Paul explains the gifts of the SpiritĬomes right after beautiful description of the Beloved Community Acts is the sequel to Luke, not Mark, and right away it feels different.
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